Duane Dike
Duane Dike is the manager of creative production for a large entertainment company in Southern California. He has a doctorate in management and organizational leadership and an MBA in management. He is a popular guest speaker for education and management groups on subjects related to innovation, leadership and thinking.
Taking time for leadership
16 Feb 2022
Pondering issues before acting brings new alternatives, fresh perspectives and creative solutions. That why leaders who don't pause to reflect often run into trouble.
In praise of inconspicuous leadership
12 Nov 2020
Many so-called leaders have an unhealthy interest in the outward trappings of their position. But real leadership is inconspicuous - and it’s about far more than status or measurable achievements.
Get out of the way!
18 Aug 2020
Barriers to productivity are many and varied, but the vast majority of them are by-products of the destructive attitudes and behaviors of leaders.
Learning is a process, not a result
12 Feb 2020
None of us learn to read, ride a bike or pack a suitcase in a day. So understanding that learning is a process, not an event is fundamental to creating learning cultures rather than environments based on rote or blind faith.
Thinking about the good things
11 Dec 2018
Some days, things at work just don’t pan out. But rather than letting this undermine your motivation, it’s worth taking a little time to think about the things that do make your job worthwhile.
Compassion
09 Oct 2018
Compassion is not typically revered in the corporate world. Bosses are simply supposed to get things done. But if they're not careful, they can become impersonal, non-compassionate and ultimately, non-human.
On culture
26 Jul 2018
Cultures are complicated things: they tend to break down to innumerable sub-cultures like concentric rings. But that doesn’t stop us embracing simplistic cultural stereotypes, be they about nations or organizations.
I think, therefore I feel
25 Jun 2018
How many of us have said, “I’ve been so busy today I haven’t even had time to think?” If you haven’t had time to think, you haven’t had time to lead. Leading without thinking is leading into disaster.
Why change? Why not?
21 May 2018
Change often fails because it is based on a plan/do model. We plan, and then expect people to do. But that ignores the exploration, thinking, mistaking, learning, testing and struggling that needs to come in between.
Leaders, go away!
02 May 2018
Too many bosses fail to understand that every individual thinks and works at different rates or that we all need to distinguish between important and not so important work to operate effectively.
Relaxing while flying
03 Apr 2018
Each time I get in a plane, I sit back and relax, because there not much else to do. What I’m getting to here is we have to learn to relax - and also learn how to separate work from non-work.
The theory thing
18 Dec 2017
Management theories are constantly changing because our business world is in a state of eternal flux. So if business leaders can’t change their ways of thinking, they risk being left behind by the march of history.
Intelligence?
09 Nov 2017
What exactly is intelligence? Is it something measured by an IQ test? Or should we also consider more subtle traits like humor, the ability to figure things out or storytelling?
Old dogs, new ideas
25 Sep 2017
It's no surprise that beginners learn quickly. But the idea that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks is terribly wrong. The age of that old dog does not determine his or her ability to learn.
Leadership, innovation and the future
03 Aug 2017
Leaders are critical to innovative thinking. Great ideas don't emerge from companies whose leaders try to control and micromanage. Innovation only thrives in organizations whose members are free to think and express themselves.
Everyday leadership
10 Jul 2017
Over the years, I’ve lost count of the number of leadership theories and styles that I’ve studied, practiced and discarded. What all this has taught me is that leadership is a complicated puzzle - and that the best solution is to keep things simple.
A time for every season
24 May 2017
In too many organizations, older workers get written off ‘village idiots’. But that’s a big mistake - after all these are the people who know its history, remember how things used to be and know what works and what doesn’t.
Should we judge?
11 Apr 2017
Making assumptions about others is a risky business. We don’t know their lives. We don’t know their happiness or their loneliness. We don’t know how they confront their issues. So why not converse? Enjoy it while you can, then move on when the environment changes.
The right way to brag
16 Feb 2017
When you’re a manager, bragging about others is good. But bragging about yourself is bad, especially when it involves taking the credit for things other people have done in order to get ahead.
Time for change
19 Dec 2016
Change is the basis of renewal. So even altering the way we approach some mundane task or activity can make life better and help us to think differently. A little change can make our world that much better.
So what went wrong?
01 Dec 2016
Even in the high inflation years of the early 1980s, jobs were relatively secure. Not any more. Now when things go wrong in a business, the axe almost always falls swiftly on the people who do the work, and very rarely on the executives who made bad decisions.
The accountability dilemma
17 Oct 2016
It’s all very well being held responsible and accountable as a manager, but that can only work if you’re also able to make real and meaningful decisions. Yet all too often, that decision-making lives with other people.
More from Duane
Feelings vs reasoning
26 Sep 2016
The older I get, the more I see that rather than ignoring people’s expressions of feeling, managers ought to welcome them as good for business and realize that results can improve when you listen and respond appropriately to them.
Learning to play together
17 Aug 2016
Even though we shared the same experiences, I think very different from my brothers. But that didn’t stop us learning to play together. So why screw up the little time we have on this earth with prejudices, hatred, and mistrust?
Focus on the positives
11 Jul 2016
Why do we feel the need to wallow in the negative? So many good things happen in our lives, but our work-world tends to drive toward the negative and the non-productive.
Truth, authenticity and leadership
13 Jun 2016
‘Authentic leadership’ is one of those phrases that gets tossed around so much that its real meaning is in danger of getting lost. So let’s take a look at ‘authentic’ in the context of leadership, music and tourism.
Names without faces
02 May 2016
'Recognition', in its most basic sense, means being able to put a name to a face. But in the business world, names without faces are all too common. And the larger a company grows, the more likely it is that bosses don’t know the names or faces of the people who do the work.
It's all about systems
19 Apr 2016
We humans operate in complicated structures called ‘systems’. And the ability to think critically about these systems is the root of all humor, creativity, drama and life.
Select your confidants carefully
07 Mar 2016
No-one operates effectively in isolation. That’s why we all need trusted compatriots to teach us how to think, help us to see things differently and to keep us out of trouble.
When evolutionary change needs a nudge
24 Feb 2016
For the most part, change is gradual and evolutionary. But sometimes it's best for us to push the evolutionary process and go for more rapid change. And that requires good, even transformational, leadership.
True leaders are human
21 Dec 2015
True leadership is the stuff of relationships. Being a leader is much more complicated than simply acting leader-like. True leadership is quality-based. Fake leadership is leader-like-sound-bites of things leaders might say.
Those darn performance appraisals
07 Sep 2015
Great performance is a product of happy people. And happy people are a product of good leadership, not of formal performance appraisals which treat people like children, create bad feeling and breed unproductivity.
Career planning 101: what I wish I'd known then
06 Jul 2015
The career advice I received when I was young was pretty unimaginative. What I wish I’d been told then is what I try to tell young people now. Make plans, but don’t box yourselves in. Be adventurous. Experiment. Think outwardly - and don’t be afraid take gambles.
You don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow
08 Jun 2015
As I’ve recently been reminded, life has an end and it could come any time. That realization brings with it a renewed focus on the things that matter. And few things matter more than the happiness that dwells in the things you do for others.